Many types of communication systems are known in the art, ranging from wireline telephone networks to cellular systems and sophisticated satellite communication arrangements. While communication systems are often employed merely for the convenience of individual users, there are many commercial and public service applications as well.
A recent development in landline telephony is the availability of a Caller ID (identification) feature. Caller ID automatically provides an indication to a call recipient of the telephone number of the calling party. This is useful for the subscriber who wishes to screen incoming calls, and also finds application in the tracing of crank or nuisance calls. Of course, the Caller ID feature can usually be disabled, at least for calls to individual users, but the disable option is usually overridden on calls to emergency services such as 911.
In the situation where a citizen calls an emergency number, seeking the assistance of a police or fire-fighting organization, the Caller ID feature has literally saved lives. Even if the caller is panicky or is cut off before he can provide his location to the emergency operator, Caller ID provides a display of the caller's telephone number that can easily be linked to a street address through access to an appropriate data base.
A feature similar to Caller ID is also useful in the commercial environment. A dispatcher who maintains communication with a group of users over an RF (radio frequency) communication system would find his task much simplified by the automatic transmission of an originator ID. Of course, in the commercial environment, involving fleets of trucks, taxicabs, etc., different drivers often operate the subject vehicles at different times, so the simple transmission of unit ID information would successfully identify the vehicle, but not the user. Communication system users are generally identified by separate identification labels called alias ID's. The term alias is used to distinguish these unique user identifications from the unit ID's that identify communication units themselves. Situations also exist where an individual may not wish to provide his user ID to a particular called party, and may be perfectly satisfied with the more anonymous unit ID only.
Accordingly, a need arises for an originator identification method that allows a caller to select from among a unit ID and various alias ID's to be transmitted to the call recipient.